


(you're) everything I have

by scorpionGrass



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Found Family, Gen, Plans For The Future, Pre-Keyblade War (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26693350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scorpionGrass/pseuds/scorpionGrass
Summary: They say before you start a war, you better know what you’re fighting for.Whether he’s Luxu or Xigbar or any of the lives in-between, one thing remains the same [or, one often meets their destiny on the road they take to avoid it].
Relationships: Ava & Luxu (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 17





	(you're) everything I have

The bell tolls. Luxu watches Ava’s lips suck in a gasp as it hits her: that she’s the traitor and she couldn’t stop anything after all. She pulls back, Keyblade disappearing in a pink shimmer before she absconds from the cliff in a wave of light that swallows her whole.

Luxu stares after her, at the flattened patch of grass where she had just stood, and smiles.

~

Leaving the others behind to embark on a solo mission is hard for Luxu to agree to.

When the Master disappears, he’s to take No Name and observe whatever events unfold. Then, he will pick an apprentice to hand No Name down to, to let it be carried into the future, forever watching with its Gazing Eye in order to make sure the Book of Prophecies is written. That, and keep the Master’s black box safe.

It’s so easy to nod and say yes when he’s in front of the Master after hours of listening to him. But it’s late now, and after all the training with the Master on how to trade bodies, find new vessels, what is inside the black box, and all the exhausting jokes and chatter, Luxu is tired down to his bones.

Tired enough to wonder whether agreeing almost blindly was the right choice.

(But at least the Master hadn’t evaded his questions this time.)

Gone? Alone? Potentially for centuries? That’s a long time to be away from the others. Foretellers, the Master had named them. All of them except Luxu, because apparently he’s special. He’s always been separate, but not separated.

That changes now, though.

He’s to watch them, watch everything, and then leave “when the time is right.” Whatever that means.

Luxu pondered this for the entirety of his walk home, and now that he sits on his bed, coat discarded over the chair at his desk, he feels… strange. Relief, like he’s been liberated from expectations, is one thing since apparently he does a great job (with the Book already existing in its complete form). Almost like, no matter what he does, it’ll be the right thing in the end.

The other thing he feels is… loneliness.

But he’ll think about the others later, and what he plans to do before he inevitably sets off.

~

Days, weeks, months go by and everything is normal. So normal it hurts because he doesn’t know when the right time is. It could be today, or tomorrow, or a year from now, but with every passing day, Luxu’s anxiety grows along with his determination to make the most of the time he has left in Daybreak Town.

If he’s going to leave his familiar life, he wants to leave it with no regrets.

~

There’s never a good time to say goodbye. It’s something Luxu realizes quickly when he’s tried for a week straight to tell the others he’ll be leaving, eventually, and that he might not see them again for a long time. He doesn’t know how long or where he’ll be, he just knows he won’t be with them.

He sits in the Master’s office now, watching Ava attempt to raise a pile of Chirithy, trying to figure out how to tell her. It’s not easy, not when the news will wipe the smile off her face. Maybe it’s a mistake to try and tell her first, but she’s the most important out of any of them. He rarely sees Ira and Aced. Invi is nice and Gula is cool, but Ava? She’s different. She’s important.

Luxu feels like if there’s a single person he should tell, it’s her.

One Chirithy topples over with a squeak and the rest domino along with it. Ava giggles and begins the task of setting them all upright. “You have to learn to walk! One foot at a time,” she says, miming the action with her hands, tapping along the table.

“These things are kinda hopeless,” Luxu says, “but you can’t help but cheer them on, I guess.”

“Right?” Ava giggles.

One of them wobbles over to Luxu, and topples over again. “Pathetic.” He holds it up with both hands and tilts his head. “We seriously need to teach them to walk?”

“The Master told us to. It’s an important job!”

Luxu glances over to her, across the table. “No wonder you always get assigned here. You like doing this.”

“Well,” Ava says, very seriously, “Aced would scare them! And Ira is too serious.”

“What about the others?”

Ava shrugs. “Invi and Gula are busy with other duties. Aren’t  _ you _ supposed to be doing something else too?”

“As if!” Luxu says, grinning. “I’m right where I’m supposed to be, helping you with this useless lot.”

It hadn’t been hard to convince the Master to give him some slots with Ava, whether it was patrolling around Daybreak Town with her or helping out with raising a new batch of Chirithy. He’d said something like “ah, youth” and rearranged the schedules with a knowing smirk.

Not that Luxu has any idea what the Master thinks he knows.

Ava smiles, soft and bright. “They won’t be useless for long. I can’t wait till we all get one of our own…”

He’ll be without one though, without a single companion on a long, tireless mission. Not that she knows that. He squashes that thought down again, not ready to let go of this good mood. “You gonna name yours?” he asks.

Her whole body lights up at that, and she grins so widely he imagines it hurts. “Oh my gosh, I hadn’t even thought of that!” she says, almost completely missing the way another Chirithy almost tumbles over the edge of the table, her hand shooting out to catch it at the last second.

Luxu can’t help but snort as she holds it up with both hands before hugging it to her chest.

“So many choices,” she ponders aloud. “Maybe I should ask if it has a name first?”

“Aren’t they all named Chirithy?”

“Oh, that would make sense.” Ava stares at the Chirithy in her arms, and Luxu can almost make out the way she squints at it in thought under her mask.

“Don’t think so hard, you might hurt yourself,” Luxu says with a snicker.

“Hey!”

~

The violet-shingled rooftops of Daybreak Town are slippery after the rain, but it doesn’t stop Luxu from cutting across them, balancing carefully as he makes his way over to the Marketplace. Rainy days always make for good sales, and he’s been meaning to stock up on potions and ethers for a couple of days now.

Not that it’s urgent; the Master rarely has him patrolling or dispatching Heartless, but it’s never good to be caught off guard when an Omega Heartless appears.

The rooftops are just quieter than the streets, and Luxu adores the quiet.

Even after the downpour they had, the Marketplace is bustling and Luxu maneuvers through the crowd to find the stall he’s looking for. He can see Aced haggling with a vendor, Ira at his side, and ducks out of their direct path to find the apothecary. It doesn’t take long to grab what he needs, and he’s about to abscond back to the rooftops before Ira can spot him when he notices the bookseller.

With the latest and final novel in the series he’s been reading.

Luxu had been afraid that it wouldn’t come out until after he had to leave. He glances furtively over to Ira and Aced, still locked in a heated debate over prices, before shuffling over to the book stall.

“Hello!” The vendor greets him much too enthusiastically for Luxu’s current attempt at stealth.

“Hi,” Luxu says quickly. “I would like a copy of that book.” He points at the dedicated cardboard stand. “That’s all. Please make it quick.”

“Of course, sir!” The vendor, again, is much too loud.

Luxu peeks over at Ira, who is facepalming at whatever Aced just took the time to haggle down. He has no doubt it’s a useless trinket, but Aced looks positively ecstatic and you know what? Good for him, living his dreams, getting stuff done, hanging out with a stick in the mud like Ira.

Finally, after what feels like literally forever and a year, the vendor comes back, the novel placed carefully into a paper bag that Luxu snatches up. He throws down the munny he owes on the counter and leaves before the vendor can say, “Thanks for your business!”

Luxu grins as he climbs back onto the rooftops. “Thanks for the book.”

~

“Hey, wanna see who can collect more Lux?”

Luxu looks up from his book to see Gula entering the plaza, bee-lining straight for Ava, who’s sitting as usual at the fountain, reading her own book.

“Bored?” she asks, and Luxu leans forward as if a few inches is going to help him hear better when he’s sitting against the slope of a third-story roof far above them.

“Yeah,” Gula says, joining her on the fountain. “We always complain about how patrolling is so boring, so… a Lux competition! You in?” Then, before she can answer, he says loudly, “You too, Luxu. Don’t think I didn’t see you skulking up there!”

Luxu rolls his eyes and peels himself off the roof, snapping his new book shut between his palms and jumping down to the mosaic of tiles circling the fountain. “Exposed,” he grumbles. Not that it’s much of a secret.

“I’m in,” Ava says with a grin, ignoring Luxu’s appearance entirely, like it’s normal. Which it kind of is. She sticks her hand out and summons her Keyblade in a flash of light. “So, time limit? Location? Where am I gonna kick your ass?”

“How about… here in Daybreak?” Gula suggests. “We split up from here and meet back at the Master’s for dinner with our numbers.”

“You’ll regret challenging me! You should’ve asked Aced,” Ava says smugly.

It’s been a while since Luxu’s seen that kind of glint in her eyes. Sweet little Ava, the youngest and most polite of all of them, is already throwing trash talk. “Fine, I’m in too,” Luxu says, his new Keyblade, No Name, appearing in his hand. He rests it across his shoulders. “Needed an excuse to test out this new bad boy, anyway.”

Both Ava and Gula stare at him.

He shrugs. “What?”

They launch into a flurry of questions:

“Are you an edgelord now?”

“What if something gets in its eye?”

“Does it need eye drops?”

“Old one not creepy enough?”

Luxu sighs and No Name flashes away. “You won’t be making fun of it when I win our little wager,” he says with a smirk. “So, what are we playing for?”

“Winner gets to ask for one thing, whatever they want, from the other two!” Ava says enthusiastically. “And I know exactly what I want.”

“I could think up a thing or two,” Gula says with a nod.

“See you losers at dinner.” Luxu disappears in a wave of light, knowing exactly how he’s going to win.

~

He loses, and of course the Master knows all of this because it’s his eye that sits in No Name’s blade. He welcomes the three of them, dusty and worn out from taking out Heartless all day, to the dinner table with enthusiasm and the biggest grin as he sits Ava right next to him.

“I heard you won a bet today!” he says proudly, clapping a hand over her shoulder.

Luxu hears Gula groan, and they both slump into their chairs as Ava recounts the day’s adventure, and shows the Master exactly how much Lux she collected on her counter. Luxu still hasn’t figured out how she did it, where she could possibly grind for that much Lux, but is too tired to think more on it.

Instead, he digs into his meal and ignores the way Ava preens under the Master’s attention, wondering what she’s going to ask for from him and Gula.

~

“You were never the best at wielding the Keyblade.”

Luxu takes offense to that. “Did you call me all the way up here, to your office, for a secret special meeting, to tell me  _ that _ ?”

The Master laughs. “No, no, no! Of course not! Who do you take me for?”

Luxu deigns it smarter to not answer that particular question. “What am I really here for?” he asks instead.

“Always with the questions,” the Master responds jovially. “Okay! No beating around the bush today. To the point it is: so, do you have a crush on Ava?”

Luxu feels his face burn. “Okay, now I  _ know _ you’re making fun of me,” he says, turning on his heel, completely ready to stomp out of the Master’s office and slam the door behind him. He knows it’s childish, but he doesn’t particularly care.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait!” The Master actually stands from his desk, holding out his arms and waving them erratically. Luxu pauses. “I just thought that you were worried about leaving with regrets.”

He’s not wrong, and Luxu scowls underneath his hood. “As if! Why would I have regrets?”

The Master shrugs. “I’m sending you on a massive quest that could take  _ years _ , separating you from your friends and the only family you’ve ever known. Why wouldn’t you have regrets?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“But why not? You don’t think Ava will miss you too?”

“It’s not about Ava.”

The Master huffs and crosses his arms. “You ask me everything except what pertains to you. Sit, Luxu.”

He does, grudgingly, in the chair furthest from the Master’s desk. Of course, then the Master sweeps toward the chair right next to him and ruins that too. They sit in silence, Luxu glaring at the patterns in the table as the Master waits, humming a diddy that grates on his nerves.

“What do you want me to say?” Luxu asks. “There’s nothing to talk about.”

“Has Ava told you yet? What she wants from that bet you made?” The Master sounds genuinely curious.

“No.”

“That’s funny. I thought she said she already knew what it’d be.”

Luxu rolls his eyes. “Maybe she’s just waiting for the right time,” he says. Like he’s been, trying to tell her he’s leaving and he doesn’t even know when.

Silence draws across the room like a suffocating blanket, but Luxu is patient. He waits it out, watching the Master twiddle his thumbs and tap his foot and all of the usual Master things that are easy tells for when he’s bursting at the seams to say something.

It doesn’t take much longer for the Master to let out a sigh. “You’re really willing to go potentially centuries holding that in?”

Luxu draws his eyes up from the table, out toward the vine-covered windows that let in just enough light during the day to light up the dust in the air like glitter. The bookshelves full of thick tomes he’s had to study from. The Master’s desk, cluttered with papers and spilled ink. Luxu swallows hard, the thought of leaving this place he’s called home his whole life breaking his heart.

Finally, he answers, “It wouldn’t make a difference anyway.”

~

The flower fields that sit above Daybreak Town are in full bloom, with petals of all colours swaying in the breeze. Ava’s smile is infectious, and Luxu can’t help but smile too in the shadow of his hood. Gula’s allergies start acting up, sneezing up a storm as they stand at the edge of the field.

“I brought your allergy pills,” Ava says, handing him a pack of pills. “And a picnic!”

Luxu snickers as Gula swallows it dry, having drunk most of his water on the way up. It had taken far longer than any of them had expected, the cliffside being a favourite spot of the Master’s whenever he wanted to watch sunrise light up Daybreak Town and make the morning dew sparkle. Normally they would just use corridors to travel around, making it a quick minute of travel to check if the Master is around, but Ava had insisted on hiking their way up for a special day out.

Luxu can’t say it wasn’t worth it.

Ava’s smile is so wide her face could crack, while Gula’s is red from all his sneezing. Luxu grins. Maybe losing the bet hadn’t been the prison sentence he’d thought it’d be.

Luxu helps her set the picnic blanket up in a clearing and starts unloading the basket full of food. “You really went all out,” he says.

“Of course! I knew we’d be starving after that hike,” Ava says, cheeks flushed. “And I made your favourites! You know, as honorary prizes for participation.”

She giggles at her own joke and Luxu can’t help but snort. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

Gula settles himself on the blanket with them, nose scrunched up. “It’s so… floral,” he says, like it’s the worst thing he’s ever had to endure. Though, with his allergies, it just might be.

“Because it’s summer!” Ava says. “The best time to see the flowers. And who knows when we’ll all get a day off together again?”

She’s right. They’re few and far in-between, with a chores and tasks schedule that keeps them busy with studying the Master’s teachings and helping him train Keyblade wielders, patrol the town, and help with running errands. They’re always up to something. And who knows, maybe their next day off will be in the fall, when the flowers have wilted and frost coats the grass, the chance passing them by to just enjoy the fair weather.

Or maybe Luxu will already be off, fulfilling the role the Master gave him. Before he can think too hard on it, Gula sneezes again, the allergy pills still not having kicked in. Luxu laughs. “Maybe next time we’ll pick something indoors?” he suggests.

“That would be nice,” Gula grumbles through a stuffy nose.

Ava just smiles as she hands them the paper plates she packed. “I’m just glad there’ll be next times… I like hanging out with you.”

Luxu ignores the way he feels his face heat up at the way she looks directly at him, glad for the hood that shadows his face. “Me too,” he says.

~

The Master disappears. Ava sobs so loudly it wracks her entire body as she sits at their round table.

Gula’s the first at her side, only because he’s always hovering near her at meetings. This time is no different, save for the fact that Luxu is the one sitting at the Master’s cluttered desk and not the Master himself. Ira stands rigidly by the bookshelves, Invi sits at the table with steepled fingers and a hard frown, and Aced paces back and forth with footsteps so heavy that Luxu has no doubt he’s carving a groove into the old floorboards.

“He’s… gone?” Invi murmurs, still in disbelief. “How do we know for sure?”

There’s no real way to know. He could just be napping or wandering around a particularly discreet corner of Daybreak Town. He could be here, or anywhere really. But the Master hasn’t been seen in days, verging on weeks. No meetings, no surprise visits, no notes, no nothing, and Luxu’s anxiety rose with every day they hadn’t heard from him.

Ira sighs, clasping his hands behind him. “He said he might disappear one day. He told me so. I didn’t think it would actually happen.”

Luxu never ended up telling them all his role. To leave. To observe. With one loss, he’s not so sure they can handle the news of another. Instead, he flips through the pages of the Master’s copy of the Book of Prophecies, the earmarked pages, the parts that were circled, highlighted, or underlined in a colour-code he can’t decipher, eyes glazed over.

“What now, then?” Gula asks. “Are we really going to create our own unions? Keep the balance? Are we ready for that?”

“We have to be,” Ira says. “We have no choice anymore. The Master said he might disappear, and we have to accept that it’s our reality now.”

Ava’s calmed down, tears rolling quietly down her cheeks. Gula’s hand rests on her shoulder and Luxu watches them, bitter but not angry. “He gave us all roles, right? It’s time to carry them out,” he says hollowly.

“No!” Aced roars. All of them snap their gaze to him. “We haven’t exhausted every possibility yet!”

“We have,” Luxu says, and he can see Ira nod solemnly. “He’s gone. And unless we want to go against his teachings, we have no choice but to move forward.”

He can see Ava in his periphery, clutching her hands together so tightly her knuckles go white. “And that means,” she says, so quietly that he has to strain to hear her, “we have to follow what he taught us. Do as he instructed, and make our unions.”

She catches his eye and he stills. “That’s right.”

The rest of the meeting goes by in a blur as they talk about Unions and recruiting and the balance of Lux. Luxu tells himself that he’s doing his job, observing and protecting the box. After all, the black box is still in the Master’s office, and No Name is back on the wall. He has yet to take it properly as his own, having put it back after the Lux-collecting contest, but Luxu is sure that it’s watching. That the Master is watching.

~

Things change in a flurry. Keyblade wielders are recruited, missions are set, everyone runs around with their own adorable Chirithy companion, and Luxu watches it all.

At first, he sticks around. After all, it’s a waste to leave now when there’s nowhere to go. All the action he could possibly observe are still here, and the black box is still tucked away in the Master’s office. But weeks pass and the others are too busy with the politics of it all. Luxu realizes he has no place among them anymore, but it’s a reality he’s accepted since the Master left them. Disappeared without a trace.

He stands in the Master’s office, taking one last look at his home, before lifting No Name from the wall and chaining the black box up.

There are no more next times left for him. It’s time.

**Author's Note:**

> _I don't care if heaven won't take me back_


End file.
